This guide is meant to help people unify Italy as Sardinia-Piedmont, which ties into the achievement 'Resorgimento'. It's written for v.1.5.10 with all DLC released at the time installed.

The Kingdom of Sardinia-Piedmont is historically the Italian kingdom that kicks off the unification of the Italian peninsula. It successfully uses a combination of victory on the battlefield and diplomacy to take its place on the European stage. While it never ends up as successful as a certain other country to its north that unified in the same time period, it can still be a force to be reckoned with.

At game start, Sardinia-Piedmont is an absolute monarchy. It has the normal set of laws for such a country (Monarchy, Autocracy, State Religion, National Supremacy) and boosts to Landowner power (Local Police Force, Tenant Farmers), and changing those laws at the start of the game is extremely difficult. At least you start with a Professional Army. The population is also poorly educated, with a roughly 20% literacy rate that will take continued hits as you absorb more of your Italian kinsmen.

Speaking of said kinsmen, the Italian peninsula is currently divided between yourself, the Austrian Empire, the Kingdom of Two Sicilies, the Papal States, Parma, Modena, Lucca, and Tuscany. You'll have to contend with all of them in one way or another.

But all is not lost. Sardinia has a number of factories at the start of the game with for generating Goods, a healthy amount of Bureaucracy, and even a University for a slight edge in research speed. You have the groundwork of a functioning industrial base almost entirely built.

Your military is two armies with a total of 21 Battalions. This will not be enough for dealing with Austria and you will need to eventually increase your army size.

Technologically, you have some things to work with. All third row technologies of Production and Military, and even a fourth-row Society tech in Banking. You're on par with most of Europe.

Your methods will depend heavily on how the AI countries bounce off of each other - namely France, Prussia, and Austria. And an argument can be made that Two Sicilies might have an easier time unifying Italy. But you're here for one reason, and one alone.

The goal of anyone following this guide:

• Unify Italy as Sardinia-Piedmont.

Italian nations start with a National Agenda that triggers when you research Nationalism. Item number one, be the first Italian nation to research Nationalism. You have a University, it shouldn't be an issue.

Researching Nationalism activates the Risorgimento National Agenda, where you can decide to support the Risorgimento (and give power to more liberal Interest Groups) or work against it (and favor conservatives). We are obviously going to support it.

Supporting the Risorgimento gives us access to actions to radicalize Italian Pops in Austrian held lands (Venetia, South Tyrol, Lombardy, Istria) and Italian pops in any country with North/South Italian as a Primary Culture that chose to not support Risorgimento.

Risorgimento tracks radicals in your country as a percent - your goal is to hit 25% of your population as Radicals to let pan-Italian revolutionaries install a democratic republic and change your laws/empower more liberal Interest Groups.

You can get events to peacefully annex the Italian states if they are in your Customs Union. None of them start in your Union and frankly, you've got some work cut out to get there. Austria is not an option; and you may have to fight them depending on how Two Sicilies reacts to your growth.

Let's break down that Goal again, now that we understand the mechanics.

• Unify Italy as Sardinia-Piedmont: Activate the Risorgimento National Agenda and support it. Allow pan-Italian revolutionaries to flip your government laws. Have your Italian neighbors join your Customs Union. Peacefully annex them whenever possible. Fight Austria if necessary.

You can choose to swap to Dedicated Police Force if you wish, but you don't need to initiate reforms at the start of the game. No Suppressing or Bolstering necessary.

For your budget, hike the taxes to Very High. While we will need the income to fund our industrialization, we're more interested in the +50% to Radicals from Standard of Living decreases. We're going to keep the taxes on Very High until we trigger the Risorgimento pan-Italian coup.

For Decrees, we're going to trigger several on Piedmont - your manufacturing and population center. Road Maintenance for State Construction Efficiency, Promote Social Mobility to boost the literacy rate, Encourage Manufacturing Industry to squeeze Throughput out of all your factories, and Greener Grass Campaign just in case you have moving Pops.

Your remaining Authority can be used on Consumption Taxes targeting the rich: Services, Transportation, and Luxury Clothes are always good picks. You start with Taxes on Liquor and Wine, and they can stay there for now.

For build order, three Construction Sectors on Piedmont should be plenty. After that, you need to boost Iron Mines, Coal, and Tooling Workshop to cover shortages in your industrial base and eventually swap the Production Method onto Iron-Frame Buildings. A Steel Mill should also be built early on.

I recommend not immediately swapping any buildings onto more advanced production methods. You have the option of swapping Livestock Ranches onto Butchering Tools and you have the industrial capacity to support it, but since you're going to focus so much on building up your mines you will quickly find that slack spent in said mines.

That said, I do recommend swapping your Textile Mills and Furniture Manufacturies onto starting Luxury Goods production. While you don't have the Dyes for Textile Mills right now, we will start fixing that in a bit.

Your top priority is researching Nationalism so you can activate the Risorgimento. After that, Atmospheric Engine and Mechanical Tools depending on how your Technology Spread works out. Getting Central Banking through Spread is a bonus to you for reasons to be discussed later.

Before starting any war with Austria, you need to research Percussion Cap (and build Munition Plants) and General Staff (and upgrade your Battalions/training methods at Barracks). Work those in when you have the chance.

Improve Relations with every Italian nation on the peninsula. Playing the diplo game is critical here. None of your Italian brethren like you enough to join a Customs Union Day 1, and a number are part of Austria's.

It will take multiple things to get people to join your Customs Union. Good relations only get you so far; trade volume will also boost your chances.

Growing your economy will be crucial to encouraging others to make a Customs Union. The larger your economy related to theirs, the more enticing the prospect becomes.

For Tuscany, the Papal States, and Two Sicilies, check their market to see what they have shortages of. It will usually be something like Luxury Furniture or Luxury Clothes or something you can trade them. Don't trade things you need to fuel your industrial sector like Iron, Coal, or Tools.

Improve Relations will only boost Relations to a +50. Things like Trade Agreements and Alliances can boost to a +80, but you should only go for those if offered or if your counterparts will accept it naturally.

If you unlock Bankrolling from Central Banking, you can use that to increase relations and have a chance to gain an Obligation.

You may see the icon of an open hand with a green heart next to options at times - this means that a country will accept an offer if you offer an Obligation (or if you use one).

For your Italian neighbors, giving an Obligation in exchange for the Customs Union is a no-brainer. They'll never call it in and you'll annex them before they even think of it.

Let's take a moment to recall why Customs Unions are great and why they will snowball your development.

In a Customs Union, everyone's Goods are shared without setting up Trade Routes. So minor Italian nations like Lucca get access to your Tools, Iron, Coal, and the like and can start modernizing. You get the benefit of free demand for your Goods and access to their raw Goods.

As you annex your Italian neighbors, your economy will grow massively and get access to new Construction Sectors and Pops. Consider getting Railroads once you start annexing neighbors to deal with possible infrastructure issues.

You can't solo Austria as Sardinia-Piedmont. You need things to break your way, especially on this version of the game - I've seen Austria double-team France to butcher Prussia and prevent Germany from forming. If you're going to fight Austria the best time to do it is when they're about to go to war with someone else so they can't pull all their forces onto you, and when you can persuade other countries to back you. Prussia will do it occasionally, and France...

You technically start with four states - but two of them are small, lightly populated, difficult to construct in, and considered part of the French homeland. The Treaty of Turin decision will hand over these two states to France in exchange for an Obligation - which you should use to Sway France into backing you in a Diplomatic Play. But which play?

in the Cultures menu (accessible on the left side of the screen), you can launch a Unification Play to declare Italy, which launches a Diplomatic Play. You can fight Two Sicilies on this if they Rival you as well or you can't annex them, and it will go against Austria. Again, timing is everything - you want to upgrade your army with Skirmish Infantry, have enough Generals, and ensure France isn't occupied.

Get France to back you with their Obligation on the play. Prussia may help as well if they're not in the middle of a truce; I've swayed them with German Leadership before.

If you have a war with both Two Sicilies and Austria, you really only need to get Two Sicilies annexed to call the war a success - consider bugging out if France is ready to concede and leave the war.

You need 12/17 provinces to declare Italy, meaning you can declare without taking land from Austria in the peace deal.

It's in the Culture menu, where you declared the Unification Play. I forgot where it was, too.

Depending on how your Unification Play went, you either got Austria's Italian territories or you took just Two Sicilies.

You get additional claims when you form Italy, which will surely lead to another Austria war in your future. You will have a lot of coastline to start building a navy to try and make a better play at colonizing than Italy did in our timeline.

Forming Italy can be tricky - Austria can grow a bit too powerful and pummel Prussia early. But using the Treaty of Turin and timing your Plays just right can make all the difference. Just be sure to save your game before going for it and trying again later if people aren't interested.